Pauli metallic ground-state in Hubbard clusters with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We study the "phase diagram" of a Hubbard plaquette with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the peculiar way in which Rashba coupling breaks the spin-rotational symmetry of the Hubbard model allows a mixing of singlet and triplet components in the ground-state that slows down and it changes the nature of the Mott transition and of the Mott insulating phases.

6 pages, 4 figures + Supplemental Material. References corrected in the last version